This looks like another good year for the stock market — the benchmark S&P 500 is up 16%. But it turns out that scores of stocks are in bear-market territory. And among that beaten-down group, there are many stocks that Wall Street analysts expect to roar back.
A list of those stocks is below.
The power of index weighting
The S&P 500 SPX is having an excellent year, in part, because it is weighted by market capitalization. It turns out that among the 500 stocks, 96 are down this year and 99 are down at least 20% from their 52-week highs.
Now let’s look at the top five companies held by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, which tracks the S&P 500. Together, they make up nearly 23% of the ETF’s portfolio and the S&P 500 Index:
| Company | Price change – 2021 | Share of SPY |
| Apple Inc. AAPL | 8.1% | 6.1% |
| Microsoft Corp. MSFT | 32.5% | 6.0% |
| Amazon.com Inc. AMZN | 2.7% | 4.0% |
| Facebook Inc. Class A FB | 30.9% | 2.3% |
| Alphabet Inc. Class A GOOGL | 58.7% | 2.3% |
| Alphabet Inc. Class C GOOGL | 59.4% | 2.1% |
| Source: FactSet | ||
Beloved stocks in bear markets
To broaden a list of large-cap stocks, the following screen began with the S&P 500 and the components of the Nasdaq-100 Index, which is made up of the 100 largest Nasdaq-listed companies by market capitalization. After removing duplicates, this left a list of 523 stocks.
Among the 523 stocks, 107 are in a bear market — that is, they were down at least 20% from their 52-week highs through Sept. 21, according to data provided by FactSet.
Among the 107, there are 35 with “buy” or equivalent ratings from at least two-thirds of analysts polled by FactSet. Here they are, sorted by the 12-month upside potential implied by the consensus price targets:
| Company | Decline from 52-week high | Closing Price – Sept. 21 | 52-week high | Date of 52-week high | Share “buy” ratings | Consensus price target | Implied 12-month upside potential |
| Western Digital Corp. WDC | -29.1% | $55.47 | $78.19 | 06/04/2021 | 70% | $93.39 | 68% |
| Baidu Inc. ADR Class A BIDU | -55.8% | $156.71 | $354.82 | 02/22/2021 | 86% | $258.24 | 65% |
| Micron Technology Inc. MU | -25.6% | $72.14 | $96.96 | 04/12/2021 | 88% | $114.03 | 58% |
| Activision Blizzard Inc. ATVI | -30.1% | $73.03 | $104.53 | 02/16/2021 | 94% | $115.34 | 58% |
| NetEase Inc. ADR NTES | -40.5% | $79.95 | $134.33 | 02/11/2021 | 94% | $125.11 | 56% |
| News Corp. Class A NWSA | -20.6% | $22.21 | $27.97 | 05/10/2021 | 80% | $32.86 | 48% |
| General Motors Co. GM | -23.2% | $49.37 | $64.30 | 06/07/2021 | 92% | $72.79 | 47% |
| Hess Corp. HES | -26.1% | $67.31 | $91.09 | 06/23/2021 | 67% | $99.13 | 47% |
| Global Payments Inc. GPN | -29.1% | $156.58 | $220.81 | 04/26/2021 | 81% | $227.15 | 45% |
| VF Corp. VFC | -27.0% | $66.25 | $90.79 | 04/29/2021 | 67% | $95.95 | 45% |
| Pinduoduo Inc. ADR Class A PDD | -55.3% | $95.10 | $212.60 | 02/16/2021 | 79% | $136.67 | 44% |
| Diamondback Energy Inc. FANG | -21.9% | $80.04 | $102.53 | 07/01/2021 | 91% | $114.09 | 43% |
| Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. TTWO | -32.2% | $145.72 | $214.91 | 02/08/2021 | 67% | $206.82 | 42% |
| Freeport-McMoRan Inc. FCX | -33.9% | $30.48 | $46.10 | 05/10/2021 | 72% | $43.21 | 42% |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. VRTX | -33.9% | $185.80 | $280.99 | 10/13/2020 | 74% | $260.67 | 40% |
| Alaska Air Group Inc. ALK | -24.4% | $56.11 | $74.25 | 04/07/2021 | 93% | $78.71 | 40% |
| Lamb Weston Holdings Inc. LW | -29.1% | $61.26 | $86.41 | 03/08/2021 | 78% | $85.43 | 39% |
| Eastman Chemical Co. EMN | -24.0% | $99.18 | $130.47 | 06/01/2021 | 73% | $137.90 | 39% |
| PTC Inc. PTC | -22.0% | $119.93 | $153.73 | 07/23/2021 | 76% | $165.23 | 38% |
| Fidelity National Information Services Inc. FIS | -22.2% | $121.38 | $155.96 | 04/29/2021 | 72% | $165.93 | 37% |
| Halliburton Co. HAL | -22.1% | $19.48 | $25.00 | 06/04/2021 | 69% | $26.47 | 36% |
| Stanley Black & Decker Inc. SWK | -20.0% | $179.89 | $225.00 | 05/10/2021 | 67% | $241.71 | 34% |
| Schlumberger Ltd. SLB | -27.0% | $26.93 | $36.87 | 06/04/2021 | 80% | $35.90 | 33% |
| Newmont Corp. NEM | -27.6% | $54.51 | $75.31 | 05/19/2021 | 71% | $72.65 | 33% |
| Southwest Airlines Co. LUV | -24.1% | $49.15 | $64.75 | 04/14/2021 | 82% | $65.00 | 32% |
| Valero Energy Corp. VLO | -25.5% | $63.32 | $84.95 | 06/03/2021 | 86% | $83.41 | 32% |
| Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. ZBH | -20.8% | $142.76 | $180.36 | 04/29/2021 | 77% | $187.58 | 31% |
| FMC Corp. FMC | -24.5% | $93.31 | $123.66 | 01/13/2021 | 68% | $122.29 | 31% |
| Cigna Corp. CI | -25.8% | $202.39 | $272.81 | 05/10/2021 | 83% | $264.73 | 31% |
| Corning Inc. GLW | -20.3% | $37.31 | $46.82 | 04/26/2021 | 67% | $48.75 | 31% |
| Leidos Holdings Inc. LDOS | -20.1% | $90.90 | $113.75 | 01/25/2021 | 83% | $117.78 | 30% |
| WestRock Co. WRK | -22.3% | $48.19 | $62.03 | 05/17/2021 | 67% | $62.31 | 29% |
| Peloton Interactive Inc. Class A PTON | -41.0% | $100.92 | $171.09 | 01/14/2021 | 74% | $129.67 | 28% |
| FedEx Corp. FDX | -21.2% | $252.07 | $319.90 | 05/27/2021 | 75% | $321.15 | 27% |
| JD.com Inc. ADR Class A JD | -32.1% | $73.50 | $108.29 | 02/17/2021 | 94% | $93.11 | 27% |
| Source: FactSet | |||||||
Click on the tickers for more about each company. The data above are limited, so the MarketWatch quote page can be an excellent start for your own research. Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s new, detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the quote page.
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